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Topic: Star Wars Customs (Choppers) (Read 6092 times)

To go off on a tangent for a second, I remember when you could turn on TLC and you know, actually learn something. Now it's all "West Coast Celebrity Poker Showdown with Angry Biker Bounty Hunter Bob Vila on an Airplane" or something.

Anyway, if this is true, Hasbro has finally jumped the shark. They cancel Unleashed because it's too expensive to produce, yet they greenlight this garbage.

To go off on a tangent for a second, I remember when you could turn on TLC and you know, actually learn something. Now it's all "West Coast Celebrity Poker Showdown with Angry Biker Bounty Hunter Bob Vila on an Airplane" or something.

You know - my son put on Mythbusters tonight 'cause they're doing the Shark Week myth busting and during the program there was a commercial with Lance Armstrong and he's returning to his hotel room and he can see sparks flying from underneath the door - when he opens the door he sees the three retards from "American Chopper" have modified his Tour de France bicycle into some redneck piece of trash and the fat son goes "ta-dah!" Lance is obviously playing along, but he has this look on his face like "retards".

It's like TLC KNOWS they're accomodating the lowest-common-denominator with this kind of programming, they embrace it and they, right-in-your-face make fun of it.

*sad*

Logged

Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

I was just making a broad generalization on the state of the once highbrow channels being dumbed down to a point where no real knowledge goes on anymore. A&E still has some great programming and their "true crime" stuff (Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice) is second to none, and nobody can argue that their Biography series isn't top notch.

But when Bravo, who used to show little art films (like an early Ewan McGregor film, "Brassed Off") and had Robert DeNiro on "Inside the Actor's Studio" is suddenly broadcasting an all-day marathon of "Celebrity Poker Showdown" and has the cast of "Will and Grace" as guests on ITAS, you know that quality television has gone way downhill.

I'm editing this for the sake of not making another posting, but with these SW Choppers and SW Transformers rumors going around, I have to be wondering about the licensing dept. at LFL these days. Sure, Hasbro's coming up with some really ridiculous concepts these days, but at the same time, LFL is approving them. Lucas said at one point he wanted total and complete control over the merchandising so that no product of poor quality or questionable motivation would have the SW logo slapped on it in an injudicious manner.

Now, even though that has been nullfied by this point (let's hear it for Darth Vader Lawn Sprinklers!), isn't putting a SW character on a motorcycle something that nobody is going to look at and say is the most asinine idea that they've ever seen? Who is running LFL's liscensing department these days? I mean, Hasbro is out of their minds for even thinking this was a good idea, but if it comes out in stores, I think that LFL needs to take a good look at itself too.

Well, it sounds like I'll get lynched for even implying that I like part of this idea...

Like you guys said, SW figures on motorcycles doesn't make any sense. But motorcycles painted in character themes, well, I kinda like it.

Call me what you will, but roaring engines get my blood flowing (granted, I'm more of a muscle car lover, but some of the motorcycles out there are beautiful).

Now, a cheap $5 item isn't what I'd want - a highly detailed paintjob on a diecast motorcycle - quality is always the ideal. And I'd hope for this to be a very limited series, just something "extra" that I'd grab once in a while.

George will label slap anything with the SW license on it. He knows the movies are over and he will continue to milk this cow for all it's worth, until he dies. And then his kids will do the same thing or live off of the inheritance.

The chopper craze has been over for almost a year. Hasbro's a little late with this idea IMO.

Though I do think Jesse James (the chopper builder) is pretty cool - and I guess the one we all know here is alright too!

WalMart Dude: Yeah, I guess. The bike replicas sell pretty good in our southern state stores.

Insinuating something Pete?

Only that certain things seem to sell better in certain areas of the country than others. If you look at WalMart for example, up here in NJ, they are sitting on MOUNTAINS of that American Chopper crap.

Down where my step-daughter lives in SC, they can't keep it in stock.

So yeah, I was kinda being mean in my generalization, but I was really trying to make light of the fact that it boggles my mind what market research is Hasbro looking at that's telling them that "choppers" is a big seller across the boards in this country?

Here's my biggest problem:

Making Choppers, Titanium Forged Figures, Force Battlers, Transformers and Unleashed Battle Packs - all require the creation of BRAND NEW tooling and money pumped into the manufacturing process, packaging design, marketing, etc... just so they can have something "different"

Regardless of whether or not Hasbro admits it, the economics is simple. Instead of taking the money you spend on tooling up stupid f**king choppers, make the necessary molds for a Sith Infiltrator, AT-TE, Turbo Tank, modify the Ewok Village, the Cloud Car, new Snowspeeder sculpt, etc.. ANYTHING to add to the PLAY VALUE of your already existing 3.75" toy line!!! The biggest problem I see with the figures today is that the lack of vehicles, pre-posed action stances and spring-powered action features RESTRICT the play-pattern that can exist with the toy line. Give a kid a nice sturdy, poseable Luke Skywalker a small vehicle that is star wars-like that his mom or dad can pick up for $10 - $15, allow him and his parents to find a bunch of "bad guys" and you've got a winner of a toy line.

Just this morning I saw a mom and two boys in the pathetic excuse for the Star Wars aisle at the Manahawkin, NJ WalMart. Here was their Star Wars purchase options: Silly String Blasters or 1 Unleashed Aayla Secura.

That's it. No figures, no vehicles, no lightsabers, not even the Mustafar playset - NOTHING. I could tell the mom wasn't too thrilled with the idea of a silly string blaster either. Parents look at a toy like that and say to themselves "I don't want to clean up that f**king mess" and they leave it on the shelves. To see WalMart getting in like 10 cases of these things is a JOKE.

Whatever high Hasbro may be riding right now due to Q2 earnings is going to come CRASHING down on them for three reasons:

1) Star Wars is still hot, yet there is no new product on the shelves2) Transformers Cybertron has just debuted but I don't think the show is starting until September on Cartoon Network - that leaves only one month of the quarter for kids to have seen the show and want to buy product3) The 3.75" GI Joe line languishes on the shelves and will soon be all returned for merchandiser credit and the Sigma Six line will debut this fall and become the SHORTEST LIVED Joe line in history.

By the end of the fiscal year, Hasbro is going to be so far down in profits the stock isn't going to be worth **** and thankfully this year, they can't make Star Wars the whipping boy excuse.

Logged

Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!